#Imaginary friends always have to care for their creator! But you can't expect an imaginary friend to do your taxes!

[phoenixcatch7]

In love with the idea of captain marvel being Billy's imaginary friend. Like, it'd be so easy. Early depictions had them as almost fully separate people sometimes, like one soul with two minds, rather than just two filters like we mostly see now.

But imagine a Billy down on his luck, hurt and hiding from police and criminals alike, daydreaming the hours away as children do, taking inspiration from all the superheroes rising to fame, making little stories to play out his dreams of saving the world with a generic action doll he found while dumpster diving once. Most of the paint's rubbed off.

Red's his favourite colour, his comfiest jumper is a bright ruby even after all the grime and washes. Gold, too, it's shiny and warmer than silver! A hero cape is a must, big and eye catching! And he can fly, of course, like superman, and in his daydreams, when he's sore and frustrated after a long day's grind, his superhero is smart enough and knows all the right words to get the bullies to stop without resorting to fighting.

His superhero fantasy is one he spends a lot of time on, the first one he goes for when struggling to sleep at night, and he can picture it so clearly. Captain marvel is big and bright and kind, strong enough to lift the boxes for the old lady up the road who's moving all by himself, fast enough to catch Jamie who fell out of the tree on Saturday and broke his leg and couldn't come to class for weeks. He appears at the entrance to alleys when Billy is cornered, he steps up behind to cover for him when he gets caught shoplifting, he sits at the bus stop with him when it's pouring rain and the right bus doesn't seem to be coming.

And then the wizard comes, or rather whisks him away, and like a magician from a fairytale breathes life into his imaginary friend until Billy feels thrice his size and a million times more invincible.

From then on, captain marvel is a real hero, just like Billy is a real boy, and as one they save the whole city, and then the whole world, and get cats down from trees and help Mrs Victoria move the last of her boxes and she gives them a pinch in the cheek and cookies for the road and sometimes it hurts but it's so much better than he imagined.

[super-optimisticgentleman]

Welcome to The Fallout Welcome Home\Fallout Au Idea

Welcome to the Fallout

A Welcome Home\Fallout AU

⦁ Self-Aware Wally & Home

⦁ This AUs Wally is taller than Cannon Wally as he's 7'5".

⦁ Welcome Home Neighborhood is a Vault Settlement.

⦁ Home is the Vault itself. Yes, its alive and therefore has never been broken into once despite raiders, enclave, and CO. attempts.

⦁ Wally is like the Overseer of the Vault. He is also the only Neighbor to have left the Vault. He never speaks about what he saw out there in the wasteland and no one asks after getting shut down the first time they tried.

⦁ Wally is Aware he's the creation of someone from our world and wants to change his world.

⦁ Wally believes if he gets rid of the Creator he can take over the AU and rewrite it so that he and his friends\neighbors have better lives.

⦁ YN is the Creator of the AU. YN is a child from a bad family home who created the AU as a means of Escapism. They're not aware they're hobby has actually become a seperate reality and that their attempts at escaping their reality is affecting this new world.

⦁ Wally enenturally finds his way to the real world only to find that the 'Monster' he has been targeting for years now is just a child, who doesn't even know what they've done. They've just been writing and drawing his world to have an escape from their own.

⦁ Wally is like a ghost in the real world, Only YN can see him therefore everyone else believes he's an imaginary friend. Wally does not like YN's Family. He tends to follow them around everywhere.

⦁ Wally does not like YN's family, if they could even be called that.

⦁ Wally now has a complication. He can't exactly kill or immate the kid but the more they write the draw the more his world changes, so he tries to convince them to be softer on their characters.

⦁ Sometimes Wally even comes up with new ideas for the AU that helps not only his Neighborhood, but the Wasteland as well. Though he needs convience YN to write the ideas down as when he attempts to write them nothing changes.

⦁ Since they created it, only YN can alter the AU. It's a sort of putting one's heart and Soul into their creation which means the whole AU is built from pieces of YN, including the characters. Wally is Self-Aware because he has a bigger piece of YN than most. Home is aware because its Home, a representation of everything YN believes a Home should be.

⦁ Because of the instability of their home life and how their parents can flip on a switch, YN keeps everything about their AU in a notebook that they always carry on them.

⦁ YN has an older brother who is considered the Family's Golden Child. He personally doesn't have anything against YN but the two of them don't talk or see each other much as he's constantly under the strain of holding up the Family's expections.

⦁ YN knowns Wally isn't an imaginery friend but instead thinks Wally is a form of their concious. They know its not healthy to see such hullications and interact with them, but doesn't care enough to stop.

⦁ Wally is better Parent\Guardian than YNs whole family. I personally like the idea of Wally being better with children and having a protective nature over them becuase not only did this one used to be a Child Show Main Character, but now lives in an Fallout AU where everything wants to kill you and unfortunately, children are considered easy targets.

⦁ Wally only spends six months in the real world as a ghost before needing to go back, but he doesn't go back empty handed. Instead he returns to The Vault (Home) with a new resident in a the form of a child with a notebook. Which is how this AU gets its YN.

⦁ YNs Brother is the only person who doesn't believe YN ran away, but was instead kidnapped. He's been looking for them for years with no luck and his only clue being a fallen out page from their journal discussing their newest companion with a drawing of Wally and YN on it.

⦁ Beause of how young they were and the whole 'Suprise Demisnion Traveling' issue, YN doesn't remember much of their life before the 'Neighborhood'.

⦁ As for the Neighbors they just know Wally left the Vault for six months only to come back with a child. No one really questions it as its Wally and he's taken care of looking after the child since bringing them back.

⦁ When they're older YN and Wally are going to end up sharing the same body. Sort of like a permanent fusion due to Spoiler.

⦁ YN\Wally an easy way to tell which of these two is in control of the body is eye color and hair style.

⦁ YN\Wally does like apples, though not the same type. YN likes sweet green apples while Wally likes crisp red apples. Neither are willing to compromise on which is better so they usually carry one of each.

⦁ YN\Wally can play three instruments: The Violin, The Piano, and The Flute. Though they could probably kill people if they tried playing the Guitar as they have no talent for it and can't even tell how bad they sound on it.

Younger YN & Wally

⦁ YN and Wally are seperate people at this point of time.

⦁ Wally basically went to murder their Creator, but ending up finding a child and kidnapping them instead. YN is still considered Missing in the Real World.

⦁ Wally took responsibility for and ended up raising YN himself.

⦁ YN doesn't remember much of their early life before the Neighborhood. Wally prevers it that way.

⦁ YN's favorite Neighbor, besides Wally and Home, is Frank. He may seem grumpy to them, but they like how honest he is with them no matter how bad a situation is and how he's willing to spend time and effort to teach them whatever they ask him about.

⦁ Under Wally and the Neighborhood's care, YN grows up to be a curious child. They always ask questions and want to know more about everything around them. Becuase of this, YN manages to sneaks out of the vault when they're thirteen. They didn't get far but they did learn that the outside world wasn't as Friendly as the Neighborhood.

⦁ They end up getting saved by a Mysterious Stranger who led them back to Home's door before vanishing. Wally found them soon after and he wasn't happy once he realized where they had been and what had almost happened.

⦁ Wally's first time adventuring out into the Wasteland wasn't much better. He actually Blinked his first encounter outside of the Vault in self defense.

Older YN & Wally

⦁ YN is Eighteen at this time.

⦁ They are 7'5".

⦁ YN and Wally are fused together and therefore share the same body, due to Spoiler. Usually their eyes help identify who is in control at the moment: Black eyes is Wally and Silver eyes is YN. If one eye is black and one eye is silver, that means they're both in control.

⦁ YN\Wally has a 30' red scarf made of military grade ballistic fibers they can use as a weapon or even restraints if necessary.

⦁ Despite being able to communicate mentally with one another, YN\Wally do tend to talk to themselves out loud at times though usually only when they're alone, though sometimes they'll forget and slip up every now and then.

⦁ YN and Wally also share each other's memories to the point they lived each other's lives. Sometimes they find it hard to remember which one of them is YN and which one of them is Wally.

⦁ YN\Wally has Wally's blue hair, but tend to have to compromise on how to style it. YN\Wally wears their hair in a braid when just YN is in control, a pompadour when just Wally is in control, and both when sharing control.

⦁ YN\Wally can eat by blinking and have Wally's 'Scary Face', so to speak. Though thanks to YN's side of the fusion, they don't like eating where other's can see them.

⦁ Wally\YN are very secrective when it comes to speaking of matters concerning themselves. They never outright lie, but they won't correct a person who makes a wrong assumption. They also never tell anyone that they're more there's more than one person in their body.

⦁ Because they are two separate people, sharing a body, YN/Wally can seem Bipolar at times. Especially when they disagree on a matter.

⦁ YN\Wally are Asexual. Though they're open to using any pronouns they prefer They/Them.

⦁ YN and Wally can travel through the Wallyverse and the YN\Neighborverse. They like to hang out in Neighborverse with the other YNs.

⦁ They also like to spend time with Watcher Wally as he's the so called 'Mom' of the group. They also don't mind spending time with Lovesick as they're immune, but they really don't want to get locked up with him.

⦁ Hunter Wally is not able to track YN\Wally as they would other Wally's since they're both a YN and a Wally at the same time. Its a complex issue, so it more luck than anything when he runs across them. It took him a while to even realize they were a Wally and needed to be returned to their AU.

This AU is still being filled out and likely be updated and altered as its expanded. This is just a basic outline for the moment.

[kidflashimpulse]

i personally really wanna know what Bart's relationship with the mental health check-ups is. like, is he super tight-lipped about what he's been through and plays everything off as fine, that he's handling it? does he talk about certain stuff but not others? has he legitimately gone to therapy since s2 or has he only done what's required of him? i'm very very curious

Okay, so this is such a good question it has taken me forever to put this together because I have a million thoughts and its impossible for me to put a proper structure to it so please bare with me, I tried my best LOL also I am SO SORRY for writing up this essay as my response LMAO i don't know, the words just won't stop !

warning: it is a lot im so sorry lol

From what I've read among the fandom, I often read that hes been put to therapy pretty much from the moment season 2 ends and has since his stay in the present managed to somewhat "heal" from his trauma or at least confront it one way or another.

Personally, I somewhat disagree with this approach. First, like we've seen from Gars arc, BB had been suffering for months pretty badly, but interventions and mandatory check ups weren't at all enforced on him until what many thought was pretty late. Honestly, I found this actually pretty realistic. From both a "slice of life" aspect as well as what's typically expected from professionals. Thats because you can't force someone to seek help unless they pose a threat to themselves or can't care for themselves anymore. So people really only intervene when things reach their nuclear stage. Typically people who also need help withdraw themselves from their social circle, as we saw with Gar, which idk if ppl realise makes it incredibly hard for them to even try to help (not out of a lack of empathy, but because they have their own responsibilities, and if someone withdraws themselves from you, then its much harder to approach them or be aware of the extent of their mental health problems). Again, I actually found his friends general involvement in Gars mental health journey fairly realistic.

I think people also overestimate the reach (heh) of the Leagues mental health efforts. The mandatory aspect is a simple "check up" and this involves a lot of people. So unless someone is actively seeking or needs help, theres only so much this service can do.

Now how this unwarrented essay on an imaginary health care system ties in to Bart (lol im so sorry for my rambles), well ill tie that in later.

Now, maybe im reading too much into it considering how him being fine was made into a gag in the Elder Wisdom Season 3 episode lol, but his first reaction (which at that point wasn't made into a recurring joke) to Barrys worry was very much "its nothing, im fine, your worry is annoying". His emotional intelligence was also displayed from his scene later on where he manages to call out what Jay was really going thru for what it was.

Elder wisdom was an episode that was listed multiple times in the watch list for the series and Jays involvement was pretty prominent in it. Now with how Phantoms concluded, Jay was listed as someone by Dinah in the last episode who has needed mental support, so it seems like that plot line has been continued. Now I don't know about you, but I interpreted Dinahs mention of Jays issues to stem from Bart being missing (compounding onto general hero life stress and him probably still mourning Joan). This is because the creators of YJ always heavily emphasise that "everything u need to know regarding all plots is what is shown" and starting from the moment in season 3 where Bart guarantees he's not going anywhere, to the moment that Jay returns to an empty home from which Bart was missing for over two weeks, to the conclusion of Jay needing mental support, I feel like its a very tidy and directly connected storyline.

Another thing from that episode which has been continued over this season is that Bart is always guaranteeing that hes fine. Its a little jarring in parallel to the worry Jay was going thru, especially with us as the audience knowing that he actually has been through a lot in those two weeks and that all that time he was literally in bandages. But the moment hes awake with Clark and co, he guarantees hes fine and immediately resumes with the mission.

What I found pretty interesting with Barts involvement in Phantoms is that a lot of what has been previously assumed of him from season 2 has been supported this season. I believe the intention of his scene with the Legion when he pretty much cornered them into revealing the truth is that he somewhat has a switch on his personality depending on the circumstances. Which to an extent supports the notion that while his general personality is pretty much genuine, what he shows depends on what hes in the mood to play up or down.

From season 2 we've seen that he can be pretty tight lipped on what he wants. From season 3 we've seen him adjust to his new timeline pretty well and in season 4 we've seen some of his complexities as well as how it can affect the people he cares about.

So, with all this in mind, to answer your questions. With the check ups being spread thin with the purpose of singling out people who are shown to need/ask for it and his affinity for being tight lipped as well as playing everything off, guaranteeing that hes fine and keeping to himself, hes really only done what hes been required to do and played off any need for concern that would require him to seek further help. This doesn't mean I don't think he hasn't talked about stuff with the people hes close with.

Lastly, he also has the factor that a lot his background has to do with the future. Sure it might be one that doesn't exist anymore, but im sure he'd struggle to explain things without giving away too many things that he'd believe he really shouldn't be saying. Also his very specific background restricts him from seeking any professional help outside of league related resources.

So yeah, if you made it to the end of my post, thank you for reading :D <3 I hope through all this I at the very least, managed to address your questions and give my two cents on our fave speedsters relationship with mental health check ups